Where were you when the iPhone and Kindle were being designed?

Occasionally, they commit illegal acts to gain an edge. Commonly mentioned examples include bribing officials to get contracts or have them look the other way on enforcement or quality issues.

Sometimes the unethical things are illegal, such as refusing to sell spare parts to repair shops that compete with the manufacturer’s repair department.

The CPSIA/Mattel inspection situation is an example that surely makes you wonder. Legal (perhaps), but unethical handling by both Mattel and the CPSC.

Ultimately, competitive behavior has two sides. Let’s discuss a few examples…

Where were you when Pittsburgh, Tokyo and Guangzhou were investing in internet and manufacturing infrastructure?

Were you talking about how your infrastructure/facilities were “good enough”?

Do you (or did you) laugh at the quality of products that say”Made in China”? Do you find better alternatives locally?

When other companies moved call centers to India, did you follow suit in order to cut costs? Or did you follow suit because they provided better service to your customers?

Where were you (and what were you up to?) when Apple was designing the iPhone? When Amazon was designing the Kindle?

What – besides stare and/or cuss – have you done to respond to those “threats”?

If you aren’t the most strategically advanced vendor in your market – what have you done about that this year? Next year, will you be in a higher position strategically than you are now? How will you get there?

Where were you in the 90s when Amazon was investing in the long term, developing their e-commerce platform and despite their youth, doing e-commerce far better than anyone else? Note: “investing in the long term” often called “losing tons of money” on Wall Street.

Did you spend any time figuring out how your business could incorporate e-commerce – or if it even made sense to do so?

When the Kindle came out, did you buy one to better understand the competition that just popped you in the mouth with a right cross?

When Costco and WalMart started offering best sellers at or below your wholesale cost, did you complain about unfair competition or did you do something to make your business a better place for readers to buy books?

Where were you over the last 30-40 years as Wal-Mart laid the foundation for today’s domination? (and then continued to improve upon it – and did so right in front of your eyes)

Were you making it easier to buy?

Were you making it easier to park and enter your business?

Were you making is easier to pay your invoice, shop, ship, get a refund, repeatedly place an identical order, or talk to customer service?

Were you giving your customers more reasons than ever to come to your store instead of the local box store?

Did you start to build(or enhance) a high-value relationship with your customers that no minimum wage employee in a blue vest could *ever* break?

Where were you when Mumbai built business centers out of slums, trained tens of thousands of workers, and built a modern communications infrastructure?

Were you enjoying your existing legacy, built 40-50-60 years ago? (Ask Woolworth where that got them).

Were you letting your city or your manufacturing plant rot while holding out for another government bailout or sweetheart contract with a government entity?

Did you spend more on lobbyists in the last 5 years than you did on educating your employees?

Where were you when colleges and secondary schools in China and India were ramping up the quality and technological level of the training they deliver?

Were you complaining about your school taxes or local school boards?

Were you complaining about the parking problems caused by the local university?

Were you whining about the foolishness of having a local community college?

Did you sigh in disgust after interviewing yet another unqualified prospective employee?

Did you complain to your CPA or another business owner about the cost of training your staff?

Were you still running Windows 95 in your schools?

Were you ignoring the fact that most of the local school’s students are more technologically savvy than their teachers or administrators (much less their parents)?

Have you ever looked at the budget for your local school board? For that matter, do they make it readily available?

Have you thought to yourself “Yeah, but we can’t do that here, this is *your town’s name*?”

When things go south

When things go south, our culture (I’m speaking of the U.S., primarily) is to find someone to vilify…to blame. Generally speaking, we must point the finger at someone because it can’t possibly be our fault.

You’ll be glad to hear that I can save you some time there.

If you insist on laying blame, the person who can pull you out of it is the same person can blame: You.

Tomorrow, we talk about that and the ROI (return on investment) of blame.

After 3 days, we’re finally going somewhere positive and useful with all of this.

You’re exactly right, Mark. The information age is creating great business opportunities but it also requires greater corporate and personal responsibility. We see this every week as companies and celebrities are being exposed and losing their brand value. Thanks for helping us take a step back and see the big picture.